| Author | Message | ||
     Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
You know that myth about how if you die in a dream, you die in reality? Well, it's not true. I've died several times in dreams and stayed under, so to speak. Last night I was in some kind of Mad Max future-world and I was killed in an explosion, only to sort of blink and wake up in another incarnation in the dream. I was killed again (machine gunned in the face by the baddies) and the exact same thing happened again. It was like a video game where I kept being reborn. I had a nightmare a few years ago where I was a ghost staring at my own dead body. I kept trying to talk to people but no one could see me. And I remember a recurring nightmare from childhood where I would be stabbed to death only to find myself in some kind of featureless limbo afterwards. John says he's never experienced it, so I wonder who else has? | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.238 |
I can't ever remember dying in my dreams, Kate. Although plenty of other people die in them. Sometimes at my hand. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.23.31 |
There was a delightful long-running US magazine in the Nineties entitled NOT DEAD BUT DREAMING in which my work appeared several times. I wonder what happened to Lara - its editrix? Thanatos-by-dreaming-without-a-dreamer? | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.2.67.184 |
I don't die in my dreams as much as my dreams die while I'm awake. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.194.128 |
Hahaha. Smart arse. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
That is extremely rare, Kate, and a sign of complete self-control and contentedness in one's self. Theoretically? I frequently have those narrative adventure dreams, usually involving some apocalyptic explosion of horror (vampires, zombies, aliens, etc) involving all my work colleagues, mates and family members succumbing one-by-one to a grisly fate. The dream usually ends with me cornered and either blowing myself to bits along with the bad guys or jumping off a tall building to my chosen doom - frequently into the heart of a ravening horde of upturned faces. So, yeah, I've died - spectacularly - but have yet to experience rebirth lol. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.21 |
Curiously, I'm always alone in my dreams. I don't think I've ever died in a dream, but I have suffered hideous pain and not infrequently find myself trapped in literally suffocating surroundings. Dreams of the rarebit fiend, no doubt. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Kate - it's happened to me before. Though your ability to keep resurfacing in another dream reminds of a B movie starring C Thomas Howell in which a special bracelet allows him to 'repiece'/return to his original state after being dispatched in dozens of hideous deaths. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
Very interesting, everyone! Stevie: I'd like to believe it means I've reached some highly evolved Buddhist state but I've been having dreams like that since I was a hopelessly neurotic teenager. I'm a little better now, but still... LOL | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
I don't think I've ever died in my dreams, but I have reached the point of death at which point the dream either ends, or I wake up, or I forget what happens next. Most often I'm stabbed, and I even now I can remember the coldness of the blade passing through me. *shudder* | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
John, I've felt that experience of being stabbed in a dream and being shocked awake by how physically real it felt. I've also felt myself stab someone in self defence, in a dream, and shuddered with horror at the sensation of the blade passing through flesh and grazing bone. I'm often amazed at how creative our unconscious imagination is, how it is able to make us feel physical sensations we never have in real life. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Kate, theory disproved then... lol | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.195.182.42 |
Interesting thread. I went through a phase of dying in dreams pretty much every night. Stabbed, shot, electrocuted, drowned, crushed, executed, falling from heights, eaten, car wrecks, plane wrecks, you name it. The weird thing was, they really hurt. The most vivid I recall was being run over by a truck, with the huge tyres coming up between my spreadeagled legs and squashing me from groin to chest. Even now I can recall the pain of testicles being mashed, the smell of bursting bowels, the crunch of ribs. At their peak, morning conversation with my wife would be: "Had a weird dream last night." "How did you die this time?" But I never died in real life  Haven't had one for a while now. God knows what caused them, but bizarrely, I kind of miss them. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
John & Stevie: YES! I've felt the exact same thing being stabbed in dreams. I think the dream world is as real to our subconscious self as reality is to our waking self, so maybe it just fills in the gaps with how things must feel. As horror fans we've probably exposed ourselves to more fictional deaths than most people, so we've got a little more information stored away for how we might perceive such an thing. Matthew - that's really fascinating! Horrible but fantastically vivid. Your conversation reminds me of Christopher Lee getting a new script and his daughter asking "So how do you die this time?"  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
That's the rational explanation, Kate, the "irrational" one being that we are tapping into the collective unconscious of shared experiences. I know I've read prose descriptions of the sensation of being stabbed and being the stabber but could these really be vivid enough to create the actual physical sensation, in all its tactile detail, in the subconscious mind? I have actually woken up in the past with the ghostly sensation of real pain, a metal blade penetrating my side, felt as a sharp coldness, that faded away as full consciousness returned. To be sure of the truth we would need to carry out an experiment involving a wide cross section of people's dream experiences, cross referenced with their real life experiences, and the reading or watching material they expose themselves to. The subjects would necessarily need to be unaware of the purpose of the experiment. Do I feel the seeds of a horror story... bet it's been done before. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
Isn't *everything* the basis for a horror story?  How can we know how accurately our dream perceptions reflect reality? Accounts from people who have been stabbed in real life describe the sensation as more like a savage blow or a punch than the piercing, sharp coldness you describe (and which is how I've felt it in dreams too). Dreams are endlessly fascinating to me and I admit to having a bit of an obsession! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
You're right, Kate. The one person I ever spoke to who had been stabbed, in a streetfight, spoke of feeling no pain at all and didn't even realise it had happened until he felt the warmth of the blood running down his side afterward - but that could have been due to adrenaline, perhaps? Incidentally, the guy was English, and I met him on a trip to Stoke - just in case anyone was being put off the idea of visiting Belfast!  | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
*suspects Stevie may be the one who keeps running into my dreams to stab me* | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
How do you know I wasn't doing research, interviewing gang members and such... rather than just chatting to some scary rando in a bar - and, believe me, the centre of Stoke on a Saturday night is one scary place! | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.17.19 |
It's nice to think of dreams as the psyche dressed in carnival clothes and parading for you. It's 3.30 a.m.I imagine quite a few of you are dreaming right now. Nothing too horrific,I hope. Stevie,the 'scary rando in the bar' Where have you been drinking lately? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Accounts from people who have been stabbed in real life describe the sensation as more like a savage blow or a punch than the piercing Yeah, that's correct. I know a few people who've been stabbed (and one poor guy who had his throat cut), and they all said the same thing. I know someone who was shot, and he described a similar sensation (only more impactful). One chap I know was stabbed 11 times and still didn't realise - he just kept figting, until blood loss put him down. (Yes, I know some very strange people). | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
>>It's 3.30 a.m. I imagine quite a few of you are dreaming right now. Nothing too horrific,I hope.<< Alex - are you an insomniac, or do you work night shifts? Just curious ... I've never died in my dreams, but I've killed my parents a few times (thinks: I wonder what Freud would make of that?). I'm always running away from monsters in my dreams, usually down long, winding corridors. But I put that down to watching too much Doctor Who!  After a particularly long night running away from scary things, I generally wake up with my legs feeling like I've run a marathon. My restless legs syndrome seems to invade my dreams and make me feel like I'm constantly running. Oh, and I sometimes fall into deep pits in my dreams, but I've never hit the bottom yet. Anyone hit the bottom when they've fallen in a dream? | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
Interesting that I can be stabbed or shot without waking in dreams, but I've always been jolted awake just before hitting the bottom in a fall. And an ex-ballet dancer friend of mine often wakes with her legs sore from dancing. | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.29.122 |
'Alex - are you an insomniac,or do you work night shifts? Just curious...' Hi,Caroline - a litle of both really,although the night shift element is a self-imposed operation enabling me to start and finish as I please. Rarely sleep for more than 4 hours and don't dream - which seems to be a bonus when I read here of members' unsettling experiences. Although that lack of decent sleep is maybe why I sometimes have weird audio-visual half-happenings when I'm awake. Or am I actually dreaming that I'm awake? Anyway,dear Caroline,I trust that your health is holding up well. An apology to Stevie W. re the 'scary rando' query. The answer was two posts above. I put it down to slapdash thread speed-reading on my part. Or it could be due to lack of sleep... I'd still like to know what a 'rando' is. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
A rando is one of those talkative strangers who randomly enter the conversation in a pub, usually under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol. They also tend to frequent drunken house parties. | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.29.122 |
Ah,yes... I am one of those.And I'll do my best not to target you next time we're in a drinking environment,Stevie. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
You could engage me in drunken waffle anytime, Alex. |